The smaller sister of Palanga, Šventoji is a bit cheaper resort town with a traditional orientation towards family fun. Its population is 1700.

The majority of restaurants and other activities of Šventoji are located in the main Kopų street, with some spilled to the nearby Jūros and Šventosios streets.

The main landmark of Šventoji is the unstable pedestrian suspension bridge over the Šventoji River known as Monkey Bridge. It connects Kopų street to the beach.

Šventoji hotels are located mainly in the surroundings of the center. Šventoji is known for the Soviet “tourist bases” of wooden cabins without WCs. These cabins were once owned by particular factories and used by their workers in summer. In the post-1990 era, some of these cabins are available for rent. Few are renovated. However, many are closer to the sea than any other non-exclusive types of accommodation in Lithuania.

Šventoji was once a port and the talks of rebuilding this port never cease. The 1939 plan (drawn after Lithuania lost Klaipėda to Nazi Germany) envisioned a planned city in place of Šventoji. As the Klaipėda is once again a part of Lithuania, post-1990 visionaries imagine instead a fishing port and a yacht anchorage on the mouth of Šventoji river. All these fail to materialize and the pier of Šventoji lays abandoned.

One large project of Šventoji that was completed is its massive Roman Catholic church dedicated to Our Lady of the Seas. The 62 m tall plain tower dwarfs the town and is an example of post-independence church building boom (the construction started in 1991 and took some 20 years). The church gets full in summer alone.

More unique is the Neo-pagan shrine on a hard-to-find hill in the northern part of the town. Known as Žemaičių alkas (the Samogitian pagan shrine) it is one of just a few such structures in Lithuania. It consists of a group of wooden poles, each representing a different god or goddess. Between the poles, there are places for holy fire (which is burned on certain pagan holidays when celebrations take place here). This shrine was rebuilt in 1998 based on archeological finds and aims to be a reconstruction of a shrine that once stood atop Birutė hill in Palanga.

Unlike the other resorts of Lithuania, Šventoji is almost entirely closed down outside the season. You will barely be able to find anything open there in winter besides a couple of shops. Therefore if you visit outside of the summer months, opt for Palanga instead. Moreover, the season for Šventoji businesses is somewhat shorter than in Palanga.